Posted on 10/23/2005 6:58:48 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Friday October 21, 06:34 PM
S.Korean Watchdog Orders Destruction Of Tainted Chinese Kimchi
SEOUL, Oct 21 Asia Pulse - South Korea's food safety watchdog ordered the recall and destruction of nine Chinese kimchi products on Friday after detecting parasite eggs in them.
The Korea Food and Drug Administration (KFDA) said the Chinese imports were found to contain the eggs of three parasites -- roundworm, hookworm and trichostrongylus orientalis.
But domestic kimchi brands were found not to contain parasite eggs, the watchdog said, announcing the outcome of a test of 16 kimchi products from China and 18 domestic brands that were sold over the Internet.
"We ordered marketers to recall all contaminated Chinese kimchi already sold," the watchdog said. "The remaining products were also ordered to be destroyed."
It was the first time for the KFDA to conduct a parasite test on kimchi imported from China. Kimchi is a traditional side dish of spicy fermented vegetables consumed with almost every meal in South Korea.
The KFDA said the parasite eggs might have come from human excrements, a fertilizer that many Chinese farmers use to grow vegetables.
"We have to take additional tests to determine the exact cause of the contamination," said Lee Chang-jun, head of the KFDA's food safety team.
Kimchi imported from China has sparked a safety scare here since an opposition lawmaker claimed late last month that it was found to contain significantly high levels of lead.
The KFDA said later Chinese kimchi contains lead below the permissible level and that it is safe for consumption.
According to government statistics, South Korea imported nearly 50,000 tons of kimchi during the first half of this year, almost all of which came from China.
I know moog. - my point was that the stuff is so foul that I can't imagine wanting to import that crap. 8^)
One time I was at some shopping place and found an actual kimchi museum. Talk about weird! When I got home from Korea, I bought some kimchi. My family wasn't too fond of the smell or the taste either.
When I flip channels past the international channels during the Korean news time slots, it's been kimchi every day for at least two weeks (both KBS and MBC Korean television stations, but seemingly more on KBS). Most recently, it appears to be about Kimchi in Japan, with stores posting signs in Japanese or removing stocks of Chinese Kimchi, and lab testing of Kimchi.
Compared to Taiwanese news, which will devote the entire time slot to only one topic whenever there's something scandalous, tittilating, or scary, the Korean news seems very restrained by devoting only ten minutes or so to Kimchi news. I don't know if that's their style or if they are bowing to the Chinese and restraining themselves.
Well. Thanks for posting this article. I've actually been eating kimchi for a couple of months now, and I'll pay more attention to the source. I've been getting it due to the fact that we don't get enough fermented foods in our diets in modern times, but I don't think we need parasite eggs.
Most of the reporting in this case is done in Internet. As you said, KBS or MBC tends to toe the government line and restrain their reporting on this subject.
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